The Movie Questionnaire Blog-a-thon

Yes, another blog-a-thon! I’ve been reading a few of these questionnaires around the blogosphere, spearheaded by Alexander from Cinemaniac Reviews. I figure why not join in on the fun.

1. What’s your favorite movie?

Sense & Sensibility – my love for this film knows no bounds

2. Least favorite movie?

Ghost Rider – simply ghastly

3. Name one movie you loved upon initial viewing but eventually grew to hate (or vice-versa).

Conan The Destroyer. Used to LOVE it as a kid and would watch it endlessly… now I can’t imagine watching it again without cringing.

4. Name your biggest guilty pleasure film.

Roger Moore Bond movies, yes even Moonraker 🙂

5. Favorite quote from a favorite actor/actress (must be a line from a movie)?

…It is bewitching in the idea of one’s happiness entirely depending on one person.– Elinor Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility

6. Favorite quote from a favorite actor/actress (must NOT be a line from a movie)?

I’d move to Los Angeles if Australia and New Zealand were swallowed up by a huge tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in England, and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack.– Russell Crowe

7. Three favorite movie scenes?

Colonel Brandon’s entrance in Sense & Sensibility

Christ giving Judah water scene in Ben-Hur

Supes rescues Lois scene in Superman: The Movie

Just three of the top 20 scenes (Part I & Part II) I could watch over and over again

I’m torn between The Lord of the Rings andToy Storytrilogy, they can’t be more different from each other but each of the films are excellent in my opinion. The first three Bourne films would make my list, too.

18. Worst trilogy?

Fortunately I have not seen too many terrible trilogies, i.e. I skipped the third Matrix and Underworld movie.

19. What’s your favorite word to use in a movie review (if your film blog does not feature reviews, substitute “review” with “-related post”?)

Seems like I say ‘compelling‘ a lot in my reviews. I wish I had more opportunities to use the word ‘discombobulated‘ more, I just LOVE that word! 🙂

20. Anything else?

Working on all these blog-a-thons just spark up an idea for a future blog-a-thon I’m hoping to assemble. Hope y’all would participate. Stay tuned!…

Oh, awesome answers! I adore Sense and Sensibility too, great to see you love this film so much. Ghost Rider, huh? I’m actually seeing the sequel for that sometime this week on account that it has Idris in it, I’m sure it will be awful 🙂

Your ears should have been burning* when I read your selections for #8. Those are the same ones I’d pick — but where’s your fourth? If you say, ‘Chicago’, ‘The English Patient’ or ”Out of Africa’ we’ll be truly channeling ;-). Fun blogathon questions (and answers), Ruth.

Thanks Michael! Oh my bad for forgetting #4, I actually had Chicago in mind so yeah we definitely are channeling each other, man! It was a good movie but NOT Best Picture material. Thanks for noticing that, I’ll add that in as the fourth one 🙂

Ha ha, I love Crowe’s quote about L.A., I don’t agree with him but it’s funny. I’ll probably move there once my movie career takes off, you have to be in the heart of it to get deals done. Accomplished actors, they don’t need to be there. A few of the actress who came to my audition already moved out to L.A., I wish them well, most of them will need it. 🙂

I’d add Crash to the list of films that should NOT have won Best Picture? What a piece of garbage that movie was.

I second Crash Ted. How about put Rocky in there? It beat out Taxi Driver, Network, All The Presidents Men and Bound For Glory. Three of those would be in my top 25 movies of all time. Two in my top 10.

I’d have to say Rocky, Ordinary People (Raging Bull anybody?), Crash, and A Beautiful Mind.

I mean Rocky was good but seriously Taxi Driver, Network, All The Presidents Men??? Directed by Scorsese, Sidney Lumet and Alan J. Paluka (Produced To Kill A Mockingbird). Scripts by Paul Schrader, Paddy Chayefsky and William Goldman. Those three writers might be more impressive than the directors listed above. Cinematography by Michael Chapman (Raging Bull), Owen Roizman (The French Connection) and Gordon “The Prince of Darkness” Willis (The Godfather 1 & 2). Don’t get me started on the ensemble casts for those movies. I’m not even bringing up Bound For Glory… (ok I guess I am) Director Hal Ashby (Harold & Maude), Writer Robert Getchall (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore ) and Cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Days Of Heaven). Also the frist use of the steadycam was in that movie and Wexler won the Oscar.

I get it, Rocky is the great American underdog story but c’mon people… Best Picture over those movies? John G. Alvidson also directed the second greatest American underdog story with The Karate Kid. Coincidence… I think not! lol. I rest my case.

3. There’s a sequel to the original Conan the Barbarian? I guess I SHOULD have forgotten.

4. Oh, yes, Moonraker. I bet that before the release of last year’s Apollo 18, it stood as perhaps the dumbest, most unfaithful and uninformed insult NASA has ever received. Still, it’s pretty fun to watch, I’d agree.

5. A thoughtful quote indeed.

6. Haha!!

7. Except for the one in Sense and Sensibility, I’ve heard a lot about those scenes, but still haven’t quite gotten around to seeing them.

8. I’ve seen those mentioned a lot under that specific question, and I’ve therefore come to the conclusion that the Academy may have been one of the only ones who actually enjoyed them.

9. Our opinions on the year’s best result in a few discrepancies, most of which are pretty slight: Brave sits at #3 on my “Worst of the Year” list (I gave it a C-), with #4 being Dark Shadows and #2 being Red Tails; Moonrise Kingdom is my current #1 for the best of the year (I gave it an A+), with Prometheus being the current runner-up; The Avengers I didn’t particularly care for or understand the ridiculous hype (I gave it a B-); The Hunger Games is my current #7 for the year’s best (I gave it an A-), with The Grey being #6 and Coriolanus being #8; and The Dark Knight Rises is my current #5 for the year’s best (I gave it an A), slightly outranked by the underrated Haywire and topping The Grey.

10. I’ve vowed to avoid Total Recall by any and all means. However, I am curious about SWATH, and as a Bourne fan, I’d kinda like to see The Bourne Legacy. I find it great as well as ironic that I’ve seen all five of your best of the year, but none of the three you named worst of the year so far.

11. (see first sentence in #10)

12. My cousin said Ben Affleck’s Daredevil is one of his favorite films and has recommended it to me on several occasions. I’d like to see it, but upon seeing an onslaught of scathing reviews, I’m not so sure how I’d enjoy it.

13-14. Interesting choices. I love Hans Gruber (in the German dub, he apparently uses a different name) and Heath Ledger’s Joker, as well.

15. I really like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and at one point, it was my favorite of the trilogy (I say trilogy because that’s how the Indy movies should have been), but Raiders of the Lost Ark, for me at least, has endured countless viewings and seems to get even better each time. I stopped counting the fifth or sixth time I saw it, which was last summer, and I first saw it when I was ten years old. Now I’m about a month and a half away from fifteen. Still haven’t seen Toy Story 3 yet, but I’d love to.

16. Please don’t even remind me of that piece of crap!!

17. I guess I’m alone on The Lord of the Rings.

18. I haven’t seen either of those trilogies. Isn’t Underworld a tetralogy now?

Hi Alexander, thanks for the question-by-question response! Oh I’m thrilled that you’d see Sense & Sensibility! Hey I’m glad you like Coriolanus too, not many people have seen it or liked it as much as we do. Y’know I haven’t seen Daredevil either, but my hubby did and he said it was such a waste of potential as the story itself is quite compelling.

I think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade shall forever be my favorite of the trilogy. I just LOVE Connery + Ford combo.

I’m a big fan of The Hurt Locker. I was really biting my nails from the very start to the end and Renner was terrific. Since I hadn’t followed the Oscars that year I don’t know what it was up against and I haven’t read what any other person thought of it. I saw it not too long ago and just fell in love.
So I don’t agree! (depends on the competition though I guess)

Shakespeare in love is a film I’ve watched several times and I’d be happy to watch it again. And again. And again. I adore the writing in a laguage suitable for the time! Beautiful costumes, a great bunch of excellent actors… romance… comedy… what is there not to love? Again though: I don’t know what it was up against. Perhaps it was very much unfair. But it’s definitely a movie I love and don’t mind having an Oscar.

Hi Jessica, oh I think The Hurt Locker was ok, I’d even think it’s a GOOD film, just not THAT good to win a Best Picture. I wasn’t as emotionally involved in the characters as I thought I would, nor am I enamored by Renner’s performance, but that’s just me.

Shakespeare was good too, I like costume drama, but I think Elizabeth is a better film and Cate Blanchett should’ve gotten Gwyneth’s Oscar!

Yeah, those two are memorable henchmen. Baron Samedi is in Octopussy right? There’s a scene where Bond looked straight into his eyes and boy that gave me the creeps! He’s quite a handsome man though, and very tall!

1. Favorite Movie? Lawrence Of Arabia. Saw the re-master in the theater in ’89. Awe inspiring. Can’t wait for the blu-ray coming out in the fall! Yay!!!

2. Hated Movie? Meet Joe Black. Three hours of watching paint dry in a theater because my ex-girlfrind wanted to see the “Brad Pitt” movie.

3. Grew to Hate? Star Wars. Loved it as a child… fell asleep in the theater during the re-release. Greedo shot first?!?? The fanboys who loved the sequels. also put me off of SW altogether.

4. Guilty Pleasure? Better Off Dead Directed by none other than Savage Steve Holland. Possibly the greatest director name in movie history. Plus Cusack, Curtis “Booger” Armstrong and the irrepressibly cute Diane Franklin. The movie was a quote machine “I want my two dollars!” “Buck up little camper” and “Now that’s a real shame when folks be throwin’ away a perfectly good white boy like that.”

5. Favorite line? Pick one from R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket. I was giddy with horror when I saw that one in the theater.

6. Actor quote? “I could see myself in a relationship with a girl; Olivia Wilde is so sexy she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox with my bare hands. She’s mesmerizing.” – Megan Fox

7. Three favorite movie scenes?
Harry Dean Stanton baring his soul in the sex booth to Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas. Moving.
Chazz Palminteri putting together the pieces of Kevin Spacey’s story from the corkboard in The Usual Suspects. My favorite gotcha
Anthony Hopkins escaping the open holding cell by “disguising” himself as one of the guards in Silence Of The Lambs. Electric.

8. Not won Best Pic? Rocky, Crash, Ordinary People and A Beautiful Mind.

9. & 10. Haven seen much this year to report on.

11. Worst/pointless remake? Psycho… which they’re remaking again!!!

12. Ripe for a remake? How about 1984. Apted’s version just was ok. Have terry Gilliam direct a serious film and ditch the Eurythmics soundtrack this time.

Those are great answers, but, you know, if you have your own blog, you can just do what Ruth did: compose a new post, ping back to my post (http://themoviefreakblog.com/movie-questionnaire/), type your answers, and email me the link. Just sayin’.

1. We’re in agreement on Lawrence of Arabia Dave, I’m thinking of going to see it on the big screen in the fall when they’re re-releasing it before it hits Blu-ray. Unfortunately there aren’t any 70mm theaters here in MN so I’ll just have to find the biggest 35mm screen available here.

Ruth, you feel my pain with Meet Joe Black. There was a small article in Maxim magazine years ago entitled “Movies That Make You Want To Kill Yourself!” and a picture of Brad from Meet Joe Black accompanied it. LOL. My girlfriend conceded her movie picking privileges after that. Seriously.

I saw that someone else called you out for not bringing up Gregory Peck. I would never do that… but since it’s out in the open now… oh the shame. 😉

You know I’ve never seen the extended versions of the LOTR. Not having read the books I didn’t feel like I missed anything.

Ahah, I think it’s fitting. I did like Anthony Hopkins in it but the whole movie is just excruciating. I wonder if that’s why Claire Forlani’s career never took off, I wish the same happened to Pitt!

Yeah, I can’t believe I left out Atticus, but ah well I figure he’s already chosen by AFI as the greatest hero, so I pick the um, more under-appreciated (save for Maximus as lots of people love him). I always love the tortured soul type of heroes, hence my pick for Rochester. I could’ve gone for Phantom of the Opera as well but I think Timothy Dalton’s performance is the more heart-wrenching.

I haven’t read the LOTR books either, but I so love that franchise. It’s just I need like a week off just to watch them all!

First of all, thanks for the link love, Ruth! Appreciate it. Love the answers to #5, 6, 9, 12, 16, 19 and 20. Seems all of us have chosen The Joker as one of our favorite villains! American Beauty and Chicago SHOULDN’T have won BP?! OMG, I’m actually hurt! hahah

I LOVE you for saying that, you are a woman of most excellent taste! YES he is fantastic and massively underrated. If I ran Hollywood, I’d cast him in all those roles that Michael Caine, Ian McKellen, Christopher Plummer and Anthony Hopkins get these days. I mean he’s as good if not better than those thespians!

I’ve never seen Sense & Sensibility. Should it be something I check out post haste or is it an acquired taste? I also notice a lot of Timothy Dalton loving going on. He was what drew me to watch Flash Gordon in the first place.

I think Sense & Sensibility is a fabulous piece of cinema regardless how you feel for period dramas. The story/acting/direction are superb, and all of us can relate to story of loss and love. I highly recommend it, obviously 🙂

I LOVE Timothy Dalton. Always have and always will. I first saw him in Flash Gordon too, oh my, Prince Barin!!! But he’s also my favorite Bond.

Hello I’m Ruth!

Film is in my blood. LOVE movies of all genres, from Jane Austen to James Bond. Official blogger for the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF). I’ve wrote and produced my first short film » HEARTS WANT in 2017 and currently working on developing the full story as a feature film.